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Humans Have Already Depleted Earth’s Resources For The Year

OAKLAND, Calif. (CBS Local) – A non-profit research group has some bad news for the rest of 2018. According to their calculations, humans have already used up all of the Earth’s renewable resources for the year.

August 1, 2018 has been declared “Earth Overshoot Day” by the international think tank Global Footprint Network (GFN). The day marks the annual point where humans reportedly use up more resources than the Earth can produce during that year.

“We use more ecological resources and services than nature can regenerate through over-fishing, over-harvesting forests, and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ecosystems can absorb,” the environmental advocates explain on their website.

The researchers claim that humans began pushing past what the Earth could replenish in the 1970s. The exact date started to be tracked in 1987, with the first Earth Overshoot Day being December 19. The reported overuse of the planet’s natural resources has continued to move that date up on the calendar every year since. Last year’s Overshoot Day was August 2.

GFN says that the United States is one of the worst countries when it comes to depleting the planet’s resources. The think tank estimates that if every country on Earth consumed materials at the same rate, Earth Overshoot Day would occur on March 15.